Apple Magic Trackpad: Ooh, it's magic
Mice are so yesterday, now that we're addicted to touchscreen phones and laptops. Enter the Apple Magic Trackpad, which brings multi-touch to your desktop
MacBook users who pine for their trackpad when they're sitting at their desktop computer can now limber up their fingers for the Magic Trackpad, which brings multi-touch gestures to your desktop set-up.
The Magic Trackpad doesn't actually use the dark arts, but it can partner or replace your mouse for flinging your pointer around the screen. You can tap to click or double-click anywhere on the surface, and use two fingers to scroll, flip pages, or rotate an image.
Apple says that it's the largest multi-touch trackpad there is, but apparently it expects us to use magic to figure out how big, because it doesn't give the dimensions of the Trackpad. Apple does say that its area is 80 per cent bigger than the trackpad on the MacBook Pro, and it's the same height as the Apple Wireless keyboard, so it's 113mm tall. Calculate that, Mac fans.
The Trackpad is wireless, so you'll need a Bluetooth enabled Mac to use it. You'll also have to be running Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.4 with the latest software update.
The Trackpad isn't pressure-sensitive and uses your finger, not a stylus, so doesn't compete with graphics tablets like the Wacom Bamboo Fun Touch. It will set you back £60 from the Apple store, and Apple suggests you drop another £25 on the most spectacularly over-hyped battery charger we've ever seen.